Alberta to phase in flavoured tobacco ban legislation

Alberta has exempted menthol from its flavoured tobacco ban law that health groups once held up as an example for other governments to follow.

Health Minister Stephen Mandel said Thursday the legislation — to be phased in — will still protect young people from the dangers of other flavoured tobacco.

After a year of study since the law was passed, the government decided that banning the popular minty weed wouldn’t be cool with adults who enjoy menthol, Mandel said.

“You need to deal with the realities of the world and we made an effort to deal with flavoured tobaccos and I think that we are quite restrictive in that area.

“The decision was made that menthol would be one we leave out at this point in time.” It is well known fact that young people prefer menthol cigarettes http://www.verycheapcigarettes.biz/cheap-cigarette/glamour/glamour-superslims-menthol

Health, medical and anti-smoking groups say exempting menthol is a mistake, because the flavour is the most popular with young people.

There are studies that say menthol soothes the throat, opens the airways and increases nicotine absorption into the bloodstream.

Angeline Webb of the Canadian Cancer Society said Alberta’s decision was very disappointing and thousands of young people will pay the price.

“Menthol is the most insidious flavour of tobacco products. It leads to addiction. It leads to initiation and youth who smoke menthol are much more likely to become long-term smokers than their non-menthol smoking peers,” she said.

“From a public health perspective, menthol is the most important flavour to focus on with reference to protecting kids.”

On Sept. 30, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Lung Association urged all health ministers across Canada to join Alberta in banning flavoured tobacco products, including menthol.

The federal, Ontario and Manitoba governments have balked at including menthol in flavoured tobacco ban legislation.

The Ontario Medical Association recently urged Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government to ban menthol cigarettes.

Menthols Account for 5% of the EU Cigarette Market

A ban on "slim" cigarettes that was backed by the parliament but not by the national governments, which chose instead to ban slim cigarette packaging designed by cigarette makers to look like lipstick or perfume in an effort to appeal to younger women.

Also, the parliament's version of the legislation would require that 75% of the surface area of cigarette packaging contain pictorial health warnings. The version backed by national governments calls for just 65% of cigarette packaging to contain the warnings.

Menthols account for about 5% of the EU cigarette market and slim cigarettes about 6%, according to the European Commission, the EU's executive arm.

"We still believe that elements of the…proposal, such as enlarged health warnings and a ban on various products consumed by many millions of adults, remain disproportionate; are unlikely to succeed in addressing public health objectives; and potentially breach European Union Law," a British American Tobacco spokesman said.

Packaging restrictions aren't the most effective measures to cut smoking, said Rey Wium, a tobacco industry analyst at Renaissance Capital in London. Indoor smoking bans have a bigger impact, he said.

"The best way of curbing smoking is through excise tax increases," Mr. Wium said. "The biggest risk to the companies is abnormal, or 'shock' excise tax increases, substantially above inflation."

"The tobacco industry has been operating in a dark environment for quite some time," he added. "I don't think this European directive will make life extraordinarily different for them."

With the exception of menthol, flavored cigarettes are already banned in the U.S. Mitch Zeller, the FDA's tobacco czar, said in an interview last month the federal agency is "getting closer'' to completing its review of scientific studies on menthol's public health impact. Menthol represents about 30% of the U.S. cigarette market and antismoking groups argue the mint flavoring masks the harsh taste of cigarettes, making it easier to start and tougher to quit. Most industry observers don't expect an outright U.S. ban any time soon, however.

The FDA aims to propose regulations by October that would treat e-cigarettes as tobacco products. In 2011 a U.S. court slapped down an earlier government attempt to regulate them as drug devices, which would have required new products to go through a lengthy approval process. Mr. Zeller recently described the fast-growing e-cigarette industry as "the wild, wild West'' but most scientists also believe e-cigarettes are less harmful than traditional smokes.

The FDA had planned to introduce graphic warning labels for cigarette packs last year but a U.S. court ruled the labels—which would have included pictures of diseased lungs and a dead body—violated the tobacco industry's constitutional right to free speech.

One issue policy makers around the world also have to weigh is how proposed regulations affect tax revenue and illicit trade.

A sizable black market has already taken root in the EU, at least partly in response to tobacco taxes. EU consumption fell 5.7% to 593 billion cigarettes last year, but counterfeit and contraband sales rose 0.4% to 65.5 billion cigarettes, KPMG estimated in a recent report.

Philip Morris International had a 38% cigarette market share in the EU last year, followed by British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco, which each had 21%, according to Citi Research.

Graphic warning labels headed for Europe

Germans are currently informed that smoking is harmful to their health and to those near them. It was claimed that in the near future, pictures of smokers’ harmed anatomies will replace thousands of words. German famou paper “Bild” said on December 13 that the European Commission had decided on a common plan for tobacco products,